Despite the warning, I was nearly caught out of position as the tunnel was completely filled with antithesis. A wave of Model Threes, pressed together so tightly they were practically trampling each other in the frenzy to advance, came swarming around the bend behind us.
As soon as they did, my bears, which reacted much faster than I did, started mercilessly cutting them down. Moments later, they were supported by Jesse’s heavy machine gun and Whisperer’s repeating rifle, both of which punched straight through multiple ranks with ease. While this was happening, Tina’s spiders created a thin defensive line between us and the antithesis, ready to jump on anything that got by.
“Do we try to counterattack now, or wait until we have a solid plan?!” Jesse yelled, his voice almost completely drowned out by his oversized weapon.
“Fuck no! We might not have an amazing plan, but we have one. We need to move before the Seventeens pull their tendrils back, so we move the instant there’s an opening! Red and Bob can bowl over most opposition. The important thing is we don’t waste the chance. I have a feeling if we miss the Seventeens, they’ll be a lot more cautious going forward!” I yelled back.
“Speaking of which!” Whisperer shouted. “The front line is already thinning!”
It was true, the wave of Model Threes was already falling apart, revealing the smaller group of Model Fours, Fives, and Sixes behind them. These slightly larger models were definitely stronger than their smaller cousins, but still no match for our combined firepower. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a Fourteen backing up this group.
“Go?!” Whisperer asked over the gunfire.
“Go!” I replied.
Red darted forward, smashing right through the antithesis front line. The confused antithesis turned and tried to attack the offending wolf creature, but Red’s hide was far too thick for the low level models to injure. While they were confused, Bob, Tina, and I rushed through the pack. Bob did his part, flattening a few Models as he ran by, while I just struggled to keep up. As I passed the back line, a couple of the Sixes seemed to have a seizure, then keeled over, dying en masse. Just like the Model Nine we had caught in the cavern.
“I hope you have the target, Red, because I think they’re onto us!” I yelled. The wolf just growled in response and accelerated further.
It was a good thing that I was so far behind, because around the next bend, Red and Bob nearly ran face first into a Fourteen, barreling down the tunnel. The wolf skidded to a halt, temporarily blocking my bear, and forcing Tina to swerve up onto the wall. There was a slightly higher roof clearance in this section, which she took full advantage of, crawling onto the roof and dropping a couple of her acid spiders directly on the beast’s back. This sudden, deadly barrage stopped the monstrosity in its tracks, but also left the tunnel mostly blocked.
“Nyx, Melters, extra strength,” I gasped as I slid to a stop next to Bob. The container that appeared in my hands was closer to an industrial soup pot than a grenade. I considered the best way to chuck the thing, but before I could figure it out Bob reached over and plucked the thing from my arms. With a single paw he chucked it right into the center of the Fourteen. Within seconds, the mass of antithesis flesh had heavily wilted, slowly revealing the passage beyond.
Red turned his head and looked at me in concern. “Go! I’ll catch up!” I yelled as I tried to catch my breath. The wolf required no further prompting and took off with Tina close behind. I thought Bob would just follow the others, but when I stopped in order to catch my second wind, the big bear picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” I yelped in surprise.
“No one left behind! We all need to stick together!” Bob declared.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
From my position, I couldn’t see anything besides the tunnel behind us, and the rough movement was starting to make me feel a little ill. “Can’t you at least carry me properly?”
“No time for that! Fighting time!” the bear replied as he ripped me back off his shoulder, spun me around, and placed me on the ground as he charged into a line of low level models. It took me a moment to regain my orientation, which left me looking at… something. It was a misshapen mass, similar to a maggot, but had a number of sacs hanging off the sides, which appeared to be spitting out Model Threes at an alarming rate. The creature, which seemed slightly alarmed by our arrival, had been munching on a part of the wall to sustain itself. I shuddered as the vaguely humanoid face, surrounded by scything feeding talons, looked my way for a second before very slowly turning and trying to block the tunnel.
I didn’t waste another second, and pulled one of the XRs off my shoulder. I aimed at the ugly creature without dropping to the ground, or properly bracing the oversized weapon, and pulled the trigger. There was a moment of disorientation as the discharge blinded me, and the kickback pushed me back a few feet, but that was nothing compared to the damage to the creature. The round tore right through its soft, rubbery hide and punched a two foot hole through the center. Somehow, that didn’t quite stop it.
The middle section started spasming randomly, but the front and back kept moving, trying to block the tunnel.
“I’ve got it!” Tina yelled as she released a load of her spiders into the wound. The combat spiders crawled into the space I’d created, and started spitting acid into the sides of the wound. Within moments, the wound was three times wider and still growing.
While we were messing with what I could only assume was a Twenty-Two, Red finished dealing with the mass of low level antithesis and was struggling to push past the creature's corpse, whining the entire time. “Please tell me that fucking brain thing isn’t going to get away after all this,” I huffed as I walked up to the devastated pile of flesh. “Nyx…”
“I’ve got it!” Bob declared, cutting me off. Before I could ask questions, he charged straight through the wound, spraying acid everywhere and crushing one of the spiders. I was so shocked, it took me a minute to react. “Nyx, flesh melter!” I called out, tossing the grenade into the mess a second later.
The mess melted agonizingly slowly. Just beyond, I could just vaguely see movement, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was. Once the creature melted enough, Red vaulted the sludge, with Tina and I following seconds later. We sprinted down the tunnel, desperately trying to catch up to Bob, and thankfully we didn’t have far to go. The big bear seemed to be stuck in a huge melee in front of another collapsed Model Fourteen with a suspiciously paw-shaped impact wound in its head, blocking the tunnel. All around, a team of Model Sixes were trying to organize themselves, and bog the bear down so the remaining antithesis could devour the corpse.
Bob was having none of it. By the time we arrived, only one or two Models managed to dig a couple of inches into the carapace before Bob bashed them back.
“Did we fail?” Tina asked as we survived the carnage. “I don’t see any commanders anywhere.”
Red snuffed, then darted into the middle of a small group of Model Threes, before biting down on something I couldn’t see. As soon as he did, half the remaining Model Sixes collapsed like broken puppets. With his first quarry killed, the big wolf turned and started advancing on another group.
A second later, something shot out of the mob of aliens. It was small, even smaller than the Model Threes it was using for camouflage. It quickly skittered forward on four limbs, struggling to get away, only to be impaled on one of Tina’s legs.
As soon as it died, the remaining Antithesis either spasmed themselves to death, or shot towards us as an uncontrolled mob. It didn’t take long for us to clean them up.
Once the fighting was done, I went over to check out the corpse. The thing was ugly, almost tick-like in appearance. It had eight large eyes that were, thankfully, now bereft of life. The bloated abdomen had several hair-like structures which, on closer inspection, had tiny, nearly invisible strands emerging from them.
“It certainly doesn’t look like something with massive intelligence capable of planning coordinated attacks,” I mumbled before dropping my last flesh melter on the creature.
“You think that’ll solve our harassment issue?” Tina asked as I stood up.
“I’m not sure. If the maggot thing was the mobile hive, we probably at least slowed them down. Hopefully it’ll be enough for us to make up for some time,” I replied. As I looked back at the trail of devastation we’d left further back down the tunnel, I realized something. “Do you remember the way back?”
She just smiled in return.